Research
By Kieran Crook

Existing Product - Pre-Analogy
• The current existing products for what I currently have in mind is not
necessarily a common piece of media, its gonna be an audio doc
similar to that of Buzzfeed:Unsolved a YouTube series analyzing many
controversies from horror to O.J Simpson
• Podcasts are also a good comparison podcasts such as the Ear Biscuits
as it is very in depth with their analysis of real life topics that they
experience in their lives such as their ongoing conversations around
various relevant topics to their day to day life.

Existing Product
• Ear Biscuits - The ear biscuits podcast was created by internet entertainment veterans Rhett
Mcloughlin and Link Neal both of these individuals used the platform YouTube to make their
brand they now run a show with a net worth of roughly 30m the two have done incredibly well to
be where they are at today alongside their multi award winning daily show the two run several
other business ventures one of which is their podcasts Ear Biscuits unlike many others of a similar
type or genre the two are the only people hosting the show 9 times out of 10 the two are barely
ever joined by any sort of company even before covid the two would make this project to wind
down after long filming sessions or as a way of coming together on their respective days off, the
podcast never really follows a written structure which is obviously different to the project I will be
undertaking as the piece will most definitely be scripted.
• The main points of Rhett & Links podcast is in order to reply to questions their audience has or
just overall have a chat about the current goings on In the world, they also will sometimes analyse
a case or a mystery as they both have a massive interest in this however this is a fairly rare
occurrence even if it does tie into the project I want to make. The two have had various guests on
the show even if there is only a handful of them they always add to the show if I was to look into
bringing in someone to co-host the documentary this would be something prioritize above
everything to have them bring something new to the piece rather than just be there.

• Ear biscuits also signed a big deal with Spotify
when Spotify made the move to allow
podcasts much more revenue for the content
they were creating of course defined by the
Joe Rogan experience podcast selling to
Spotify for around a rumored $100m
exclusivity deal, Ear biscuits deal is of course
some way behind Joe’s as Joe’s podcast is the
most profitable in the world and a no brainer
for any entertainment business really trying
to put audio pieces such as podcasts ahead,
which in this case is of course Spotify.
• Ear biscuits was launched way back in late
2013 meaning the series itself is around 8
years old now the overall consistency of the
project is astounding to think about at times
as from September 27th 2013 to present the
series has racked up just under 280 episodes
making it one of the longest running projects
of its genre and as far as we know the series is
stopping no time soon.

Existing Product
• Buzzfeed:Unsolved - Buzzfeed unsolved is a series based around the various mysteries of this
world, and is most likely where I will gather much of my inspiration from as the series has already
visited Tombstone, AZ. The episode in which they looked into the many mysteries of Tombstone
has now racked up well over 6 million views on YouTube, the series is one of my direct inspirations
as it does visit the topic I am looking into working on but also the series is made increasingly
interesting than just a talk show as the two hosts Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej are enjoyable to
watch as they are genuinely entertaining whilst also creating a tense and suspenseful atmosphere
inside the series.
• The series itself is a film based one and the content itself is available in an audio version aswell
however the video version Is the one they publish on YouTube and the one that does so well on
their own channel they have covered many mystery's and conspiracies over the years from
Tombstone all the way to the curious case of O.J Simpson. The content itself has won many
awards and is a very well produced piece with Hollywood standard production whilst this does
not necessarily matter for the piece I am attempting to create due to the audio specific nature of
it the analysis of that aspect helps with the overall quality of the piece therefore I have got to
consider what effect the lack of video in my piece will actually have.

• Unsolved itself has a handful of
installments all hosted by Ryan & Shane
the specific unsolved genres are as follows
Supernatural, True Crime, Afterthought
these categories make the various
experiences you may want to find in the
series a lot easier to separate as the
supernatural ones may be a little less
believable by some people and the true
crime ones may jump out because they are
of course founded in reality.
• This ability to separate also makes the
audience for this particular series so much
wider in range as it is attracting two
completely different audiences to the same
label. Factual research and Supernatural
research have always been in disagreement
with each other.

Existing Product
• Grunge - Grunge is again similar to Buzzfeed is a content creation channel on YouTube dedicated
to creating and adding more information to topics such as the untold truth of various areas of
mystery across the world with their video on Tombstone amassing almost 70,000 views on the
site since its release 8 months ago the video has done well on the channel and gives a lot more
information on the topic itself which is something I am/ will be looking into emulating as well as
possible, the information that is able to be conveyed in around 8-10 minutes is obviously not a
long time in particular especially to give information on the truths & lies of tombstone and the
conspiracies around it baring in mind this is all in the audio aspect aswell, Grunge does a really
good job of getting all these features over to the audience that it is attempting to reach.
• Grunge have a big audience with around 1.5m subscribers on YouTube with their most popular
video titled “The Untold Truth Of Bob Ross” gaining around 8m views itself, the channels overall
views reach around 850m which is an absolutely huge number even despite the channel
uploading almost every single day about various topics. The cannels ability to get the information
they do inside their videos of almost 10 minutes is something I will carefully analyse and assess
whether I can achieve similar.

Existing Product
• The Richest - The Richest is a YouTube channel with around 14.8m Subscribers and amassing well
over 6bn video views in total so its fair to say they are a quite wealthy and well established
business pillar in the YouTube landscape being one of the top 400 most subscribed channels on
the site the channel is most famous for its various videos on top 10 lists and analysis of certain
mysteries and lifes bigger questions. As mentioned in other existing products this channel is again
a video only source so the lack of video to convey similar information will be a hurdle I can take
some inspiration from this to attempt to achieve.
• The success of the channel itself is in wide parts to the top tier execution of the narration by the
multiple narrators that the company have got. This is of course a similar case to the popularity of
channels such as MostAmazingTop10s and DangerDolan both of which also focus heavily on how
their voice is carried across to the audience they are trying to supply with entertainment. Should I
be able to get a similar narration quality or in fact anywhere near that of these respective
channels then that should give my project a massive boost in terms of the better quality I can gain
from the better narration.

Research Analysis
• The research I conducted on already existing products wasn’t as in depth as I maybe would have
liked as there is a severe lack of comparable sources as there are not a whole bunch of conspiracy
audio-docs contrary to what you might think would be an obvious choice to make audio pieces
about, however this does nit mean that the research was not up to the analogy level that I
actually wanted to achieve, this Is due to the more simplistic nature of some of the pieces on the
visual side of things being able to take enough inspiration from them pieces and their narration
and the quality pieces they put out for their audiences, audience is something I will assess a little
later on in this PowerPoint but the existing products target audiences are consistent with the
audience I want to be able to reach.
• The existing products assessed were much more visual based as previously mentioned this is
because of a lack of my project already existing in this field or at least a mainstream one is not
exactly easy to come across. For this reason the analysis I could do on a less mainstream piece
would be virtually worthless because whilst the piece itself would be similar in style and content
the background and the amount of information on the piece would be extremely low therefore
almost useless to me.

Subject Research

Tombstone, Arizona
• Tombstone itself has an extremely rich past as it was a massive part of the original gold rush & the era where
wealth dictated so much, a really curious part of Tombstone was that for a very long time the town itself had
barely any laws and things were very rarely enforced even if they were in law due to a very low budget law
enforcement therefore the town was a hotspot for crime, robbery, solicitation and everything under the sun
really widely considered as one of the busiest towns in the entire gold rush era, the town eventually fell into
decay as the miners ran out of gold to mine because as we all know it is not infinite, once the mines dried up
people moved on and Tombstone was left abandoned a town that got built so quickly also folded on itself so
quickly aswell, the day the town began to fall into its eventually abandonment was around October of 1881
due to the Gunfight of the O.K Corral which is one of the very few buildings still up in almost its entirety in
the town now in 2021.
• The sheer amount of rumours about Tombstone go all the way back to when the town first got abandoned
with many entities being sited at the location over the last 100 years especially entities such as the lady in
white. The area itself is famous in the culture of Arizona and the area has got a lot of respect despite being a
cesspit of criminals and felons the area is well kept and its legacy will live on for a long time.
• Vital Parts Of This Slide - The town was formed to be housing for miners who were working on some of the
most profitable ground in Arizona at the time, the population went from around 100 in 1877 to around
14,000 at its peak around 1881.

The Gunfight Of The O.K Corral
• October 26th 1881 as like any other day in Tombstone the sun came up and roosters called it was
just a normal day. However that being said for a few residents of the Arizona town it was when
friendships, relationships and turmoil would come to a head in a street gunfight outside the
infamous O.K Corral. The gunfight which saw the deaths of 3, the infamous McLaury brothers and
Billy Clanton, the most famous gunfight in the wild west claimed only 3 lives however the build up
which is very well documented throughout the history books between the 2 parties involved in
the fight itself.
• The gunfight itself is just one among many stories amongst the lore of Tombstone, most of these
stories snaking their way into culture such as the films all about the gunfight itself and the wider
story of Tombstone. The various hauntings that have been reported in the last 100 years are
mostly in connection to the various events that happened at the town with one of the main ones
being various gunshot noises reportedly being heard in the street outside the O.K Corral

Modern Day Tombstone
• Tombstone is now a tourist attraction town and has been gently restructured to somewhat
resemble the controversial town this attraction has around 300 tourists per resident on a yearly
basis the US Census estimates that the place has around 1900 residents living there in the current
time. The buildings in the area range from those built in the 1880s in the original boom of the
town where the population was near 14,000 however when it fell down to around 700 at the start
of the next century due to the mines dwindling in profits and the mines also hitting water at
around 160m and below these were all factors in the downfall of the town itself the failed
rebuilding of the over 150 businesses lost to both the big fires of tombstone were also a major
factor, however them 700 people saved Tombstone from becoming a ghost town like many before
it.
• The positive for Tombstone nowadays is that it is very close to a massive shopping district
therefore being way less isolated to how it was in the past, the gunfight of the O.K Corral and the
Hollywood film are the main factors behind the massive tourist interest in the town but the
upkeep of the place itself is a massive credit to how far the town came in the short time between
1877 and 1890 when the town was growing with thousands flocking in from the north to join in
the riches.

The Various Hauntings Of Tombstone, AZ
• The Lady In White - Various tales have been told about this apparition some linking her
appearance to that of a fretful mother who lost her child in early 1880, who in a devastated state
took her own life as a result of it. The lady is said to wander the streets of Tombstone on a nightly
basis
• Marshal Fred White - In the early morning of October 28th 1880 Fred White was approaching
some cowboy faction members who were shooting guns for fun in Tombstone, White went to
disarm the gunman and a shot accidentally went off hitting the Bemused Marshal in the groin
although he was expected to make a full recovery he suddenly passed away two days after the
incident, his ghost is said to roam his death location nearby to the later built Bird Cage Theatre.
• Virgil Earp - One of the members of the O.K Corral shooting was Virgil Earp alongside his 2 now
infamous brothers, Wyatt & Warren, Wyatt the most successful of the 3 eventually infamous for
many controversies during his life eventually dying in LA in 1929. Virgil however was assaulted in
the middle of Tombstone the ghost is believed to be Virgil as it never crosses the street just as
Virgil didn’t when he was assaulted.

Analysis Of The Hauntings
• Despite the hauntings happening all around Tombstone the site itself is a massively active spot
due to the many many crimes and murders committed at the site this is said to by many spiritual
analogists make the site have a very high level of supernatural and dark presence internally, which
of course makes it the perfect place to do a piece of work on as although its history is “just
another wild west town” the deep roots of the town and what it was able to achieve is a
phenomenal tale to tell.
• The varied hauntings and their tales that have been inferred by the movements of the ghosts all
carry their own tales and they are tales that will live on forever in the lore of Tombstone itself, the
sheer amount of things that they achieved during the time that the town was active was
phenomenal at the beginning of the mining the mines were producing 3 times what mines
anywhere else were achieving the mines eventually made the miners an the people of Tombstone
around $2bn (in todays money) over the 20ish years of consistent mining, there are plans for
renewed mining of the area as it was only halted by the water interruption to the mines
themselves which due to the lack of technological advancements was an unsolvable issue in the
end. The renewed mining plans are set to unearth around $50m worth of ore which will be well
worth the investment made to attempt to clear it

Bibliography
• Buzzfeed. (2021). Buzzfeed: Unsolved. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKijjvu6bN1c-ZHVwR7-5WA. Last
accessed 09/03/2021.
• Rhett & Link. (2021). Ear Biscuits. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nhd-qEBMmFs-DkhBaQwww. Last
accessed 09/03/2021.
• Grunge . (2021). Grunge. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWlIGsKGsvgFJHkiZml4O1A. Last
accessed 12/03/2021.
• TheRichest. (2021). Tombstone. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdxi8d8qRsRyUi2ERYjYb-w. Last
accessed 12/03/2021.